


Karma is a Radioactive Lizard

by Star_Going_Supernova



Category: Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Hurt Madison Russell, Kidnapped Madison Russell, Minor Character Death, Morally Ambiguous Character, Protective Godzilla, and a somewhat, descriptions of people being killed, i wanted a big angry titan not a complex plot so here we are, less cute more murder, nothing overly graphic but just to be safe, pissed off!Godzilla, this is not my usual sort of story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24886942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: To Monarch’s great confusion, Godzilla has a violent reaction to Madison Russell’s kidnapping. It only goes downhill from there.
Relationships: Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse) & Madison Russell, Madison Russell & Mark Russell
Comments: 47
Kudos: 144





	Karma is a Radioactive Lizard

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write some vicious Godzilla where he just kills some people willy-nilly. Bad people, but still. So if that sort of thing isn’t for you, turn back now! It doesn’t get _too_ graphic, but this is straight-up murder. I'd rather be overcautious than not enough. 
> 
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

If you’d asked anyone in Monarch, no matter where their focus was or which base they frequented or how long they’d been with the organization, not a single one would’ve expected the violent reaction to Madison Russell’s kidnapping. Oh, her father was fit to be tied, and most anyone from Castle Bravo who’d spent some amount of time with her was visibly worried and tense and angry—none of that was a surprise. She was like a kid sister or niece to many of them, after all.

It was _Godzilla’s_ reaction that really shocked people. A moment of distracted panic voiced in the depths of Castle Bravo while the King happened to be floating by the reinforced window was how he’d heard the news. And while a few were busy wondering how well he could hear them through the thick glass, and how well he could understand them at that, the rest were distracted by the absolute rage the Titan fell into.

Callous as it may have sounded, Maddie was just another human. So why did Godzilla come distressingly close to creating a minor hurricane around Castle Bravo with his abusive use of atomic breath and thrashing body? What was it about her that set off such an aggressive response?

No one had the answer, and the only person who might’ve been able to provide some insight was the one who was missing.

Their only course of action, then, to keep Godzilla from rampaging across the earth, was to find Maddie as quickly as they could. It still took Monarch three days to pinpoint her location, to track her and her kidnappers to the edge of the world, to haltingly tell Godzilla where they believed she was—the messengers quaking beneath his narrow-eyed glare—and scramble to follow after him.

A lot could happen in three days.

• • •

Godzilla fell upon the old fishing outpost with bared teeth and sharp claws. Looking more like a vicious, thoughtless animal than he ever had, he crouched on all four of his limbs and used his snout to dig into the roof and fling it aside. Chunks of debris scattered across the surrounding land, while some crashed into the broken walls, raining down into the room below.

With the help of their technology, Monarch’s aircrafts could pick up the screams coming from inside the ruined building. They were still too far out to do anything about it.

The structure wasn’t very large, perhaps as big as Godzilla’s head. It hardly mattered, though, as he ducked down, jaw snapping, and knocked portions of the wall outward.

On their screens, the people of Monarch watched in silent, shocked horror as the King reared back, several humans caught in his mouth. No one could say whether the few who managed to free themselves, only to fall the deadly distance to the ground, were the lucky ones. Godzilla jerked his head, flinging those who remained, screaming, into his open maw. He swallowed them whole. 

(The humans bearing witness, being human, couldn't help but wonder what it was like. Were they alive as they traveled down the Titan's throat? Were they aware? Were they still screaming?)

In his shadow, what must’ve been the remaining humans in the old outpost scattered. An angry growl tore through the air, covering the sounds of their fear. Godzilla’s left forelimb smashed down on someone who tread too close to him, even as he angled his body to whip his tail around, taking out the few vehicles parked on the concrete and swatting a couple humans while he was at it. Their broken bodies sailed away to crumple in the grass, as limp and twisted as any rag-doll.

When he lifted his left hand off the ground, nothing but a glossy red smear remained. Perhaps some liquified viscera was seeping into the dirt. 

The aircraft hovered nearby but remained at a significant distance. No one was sure anymore whether it’d be safe to get closer. To get between Godzilla and his prey—surely, it would be a death sentence.

Something within the building’s remains caught the angry Titan’s attention. His eyes narrowed dangerously.

The hair on the various Monarch personnels’ arms raised as a hum crackled around them. Godzilla’s spines lit up, and as near as they were, they could taste static.

Just before the rushing sound of his atomic breath could overwhelm their sensors, two quick gunshots rang out from the building. The earth shook with the force of Godzilla’s roar, his whole body having gone tense in his outrage.

The flare from his radiation blinded everyone watching. It lasted several long seconds, and when their eyes finally cleared, they could see the path the beam had taken, destroying the farthest wall and scorching the ground in a jerking squiggle. Not only had he destroyed whoever he’d initially aimed for, he’d taken out the last few humans making a run for it.

A few of them were even still alive, left as little more than squirming, human-shaped pieces of burned flesh and exposed muscle and bone. They were charred into whatever position they'd been in when the aptly-named atomic breath hit them. Later examinations revealed fingers fused together, liquified eyeballs, and internal organs that might as well have been barbecued. None of them survived long enough to receive help—though this was generally murmured about to have been for the best. 

His opponents completely and brutally vanquished, Godzilla reared back for a final bellow at the sky before he shifted forward and reached into the pitiful remains of the outpost with his right hand.

With a great heave, he returned to standing on just two legs. He remained motionless for a few seconds, intently focused on something he had picked up. The pilots of the largest aircraft went stiff as he finally turned towards them, a hard look in his too-intelligent eyes. They didn’t dare steer away as Godzilla approached.

An impatient growl was their only cue to open the bay doors. The personnel within stood paralyzed as a massive scaly hand poked through the opening just enough to deposit what looked to be a bloody human body on the edge.

The claws retreated and the person groaned weakly. At this sign of life, the closest people lurched forward to help as others radioed for medical assistance. In the control room, they watched Godzilla move away from the aircraft. They expected him to return to the ocean, his self-appointed job complete, but instead, he stalked with ground-shaking footsteps down the two-track leading farther inland.

The main aircraft took off to return to the nearest Monarch base, calling ahead that they had Madison Russell, who was in dire need of a blood transfusion and likely surgery. The other ships lingered, no one quite certain whether they should let Godzilla go off on his own. His intentions were anyone’s guess. Perhaps he thought not all the kidnappers had been present.

Finally, two Ospreys moved to follow him at a respectful distance, leaving a third to deal with cleanup duty. Images of being swiped out of the air or blasted to kingdom come filled the pilots’ minds. No one dared interfere with the King’s mission.

• • •

“His reaction was… unprecedented,” Colonel Foster told Mark as he watched a recording from earlier that day. He felt a bit like something was trying to claw out of his throat, and he wasn’t sure if it was his heart or his lunch.

His jaw clenched as the image switched to security footage from one of the ship’s cargo bays. “No kidding,” he said hoarsely as it ended, his mind looping the contrasting images of Godzilla crushing a man under one hand and gently holding his daughter in the other. “That was...” A dozen words for it filtered through his head: savage, bloodthirsty, merciless, cruel. 

"Inhuman," he finally settled on.

She nodded solemnly. “And he’s still going.”

“What?”

“Our intelligence department determined not all the kidnappers were present when Godzilla arrived. How he knew that before we did, we’ll never know for sure. He’s gone… _hunting._ ”

Mark turned to face her. He wasn’t sure what she saw in his face or his eyes, but she grimaced slightly. If his expression was anything like what he was feeling, he couldn’t blame her.

Colonel Foster leaned forward and swiped the screen to a new video. She pressed play. “Ever wonder what happens to a human in the direct line of fire of Godzilla’s atomic breath?”

He winced as he watched two men vanish as the beam of blue light engulfed them.

“Not even ashes left,” she muttered.

“Why is he doing this?” Mark asked, sounding as horrified as he felt. This was different than anything he’d felt before. Different from realizing his son was dead, different from seeing the path Emma had turned to. Different, even, than finding out his daughter had been kidnapped by unknown hostiles, than seeing her for the first time after she’d been recovered.

Most of her injuries had been expected, considering the circumstances. Cuts and bruises. Dehydration and a mild fever from infection. Her wrists had been rubbed raw from restraints. Visible signs that she’d fought back—scrapped knuckles, blood under her fingernails that didn’t belong to her. Bruised ribs—thankfully not cracked—which they guessed came from her either being punched, kicked, or shoved too hard into the ground.

One of her arms was a little singed, though it was nothing more dangerous than a particularly bad sunburn. She’d been too close when Godzilla fried whoever shot her.

Because someone had shot Maddie. Twice. That was the one that hurt Mark the most. A bullet had torn through his daughter’s stomach, and another only an inch or so from a lung. If the shooter had had time to fire off a third...

“Why indeed,” Colonel Foster said. “I was hoping you might have some insight to the answer of that particular question.”

Mark set his elbows on the desk in front of him and rested his forehead in his hands. “I don’t know what to tell you, Colonel. Unless Maddie’s managed to hide a Titan from all of us, I have no idea why Godzilla would react like this.” He turned his head to the side. “Is he—I mean, are there still people he’s going after?”

She nodded.

Why would a Titan like Godzilla care about one measly human? If—if it’d been Mothra, _maybe_ they could’ve spun some nonsense about her remembering Maddie from when she hatched. But Godzilla? Maddie’d briefly been caught in the heart of the battle between him and Ghidorah, but the idea that Godzilla had noticed her, much less cared enough to remember her, was absurd.

He let out a shuddery breath. “Colonel? Do you think Maddie’s in danger? From him?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, Mark. I’m sorry, but I just don’t know.”

• • •

A few days passed while Godzilla hunted. After the two men who might as well have been vaporized, only three more people fell to him before his rage was assuaged. The footage from these was no less horrifying than the others.

The first was a woman, who pulled a grenade out of nowhere and launched it into Godzilla’s mouth like that would somehow work better than a nuke. Of course, his mouth was only close enough for her to target because she was standing on top of a building, and he was leaning over to snap his jaws down over her.

They weren’t sure whether the blood on his teeth was his own or the woman’s. Based on the way he'd taken the time to chew, they could take an educated guess.

The second was a victim of Godzilla’s tail. He watched, seemingly passive, as the human tried to run away from him on foot. And then he’d turned sharply where he stood, raised his tail, and let it fall on the man, crushing him. 

Like at the fishing outpost, they tried to gather the remains. His body peeled off the ground in flattened pieces. Monarch quite literally had to scrape him up.

The less said about the third, the better for everyone’s ability to sleep at night. Monarch could only guess Godzilla knew something they didn’t, something that made him twice as vicious with that man than any of the others.

As the pair of Monarch aircraft continued to track Godzilla from a falsely safe distance, everyone quietly hoping he merely returned to the ocean without doing anything else, Mark swiveled back and forth in his seat beside Rick.

“What do I do?” he muttered.

“About what? Not like you have to worry about those guys making a repeat appearance.” Rick winced. “Not that they deserved having to answer to the big guy like that. Brutal.”

“Exactly,” Mark hissed. “He was brutal about it and not a single person here can figure out why. I have half a mind to take Maddie somewhere nice and far inland because like hell do I want him anywhere near her.”

“We’d miss you both, but you do what you need to, man,” Rick said. He leaned back in his chair and frowned. “You think it’s safe, though?”

“What?”

“I mean, you don’t think he’d react the same, do you?”

Mark’s blood ran cold and he shuddered. “Do _you?_ ”

Rick shrugged. “After seeing that,” he nodded at the screen they’d watched that last death on, “I’m not sure I’d take the chance.”

• • • 

Maddie stared down at her hands in her lap, covered by the sheet of the hospital bed, and listened in silence as Mark gave her a revised edition of what had happened. She looked miles better than when she'd first been found. A week of careful monitoring, medication, and lots of sleep did wonders. The base’s doctors had promised she’d make a full recovery.

He watched her carefully when he finished. His daughter was pale, though that didn’t necessarily mean anything, considering her condition.

“They’re all dead?” she asked quietly.

“Yes. Godzilla killed all of them.”

She shook her head slowly, fiddling with her IV line. “Why?”

Mark sighed. “We were kind of hoping you could answer that.” He held up his hand at the wide-eyed look she sent him. “We’re not blaming you, Maddie, I swear. But we have no idea why Godzilla would react like this.”

Maddie just shook her head again, shoulders hunched inward. She looked tired. There were bandages visible beneath the wide collar of her hospital shirt, and more wrapped around her arms. It'd been a long week, and he wondered if she was having nightmares. He made a mental note to ask the nurses to keep an eye out for signs that she was having trouble sleeping.

When it became clear he wouldn't get a response, Mark stood up from his chair, knees cracking, and took one of her hands in his. “Hey,” he whispered. “It’s gonna be okay, kiddo. You get some more rest, all right? Have the nurses call me if you need anything.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and left her to sleep. His phone vibrated half an hour later, but to his surprise, it wasn’t the medical wing’s number. Seconds after the text came through, the floor shook.

• • •

The shield was down over the window in the central hub when Mark rushed in. Colonel Foster stood behind Rick and the seats for the weapons were occupied. Castle Bravo periodically shuddered around them. 

“What’s going on?” he asked Rick over the frantic chatter filling the room.

Rick nodded down at one of the screen’s in front of him, showing the sonar display of the base’s surroundings. “We’re being circled.”

And they were. Mark watched the large shape move around them in tight circles. The growling rumble coming from the speakers hadn’t been as constant or loud back during the confrontation at the beginning of the ORCA debacle.

“Is he displaying aggression?” Foster asked.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Rick said. “But I don’t think so. Not the sort you’re thinking of.”

“What other sort is there?” Mark tried not to sound hysterical, he really did, but he wasn’t sure about how successful he was.

The base trembled lightly. On the sonar, the shape of Godzilla brushed against the base.

“Look, all I’m saying is I don’t think he’s gonna unleash his atomic breath on us. But something’s obviously got him worked up.”

“Hold your fire,” Colonel Foster called over to the gunners. “Let’s try to avoid pissing him off any further.”

Another bump had Castle Bravo shaking a little more vigorously. Rick cursed as he poked around on one of his screens. Foster stepped away to speak to someone else. Mark straightened and stared with growing dread at the metal shield.

Through gritted teeth, Rick asked, “I don’t suppose you think he’d calm down if we lowered that thing? Y’know, like last time?”

“Nothing about this is like last time.” Mark nearly lost his footing at the next tremor. “What does he want?” 

Foster reappeared behind Rick. “Can we chase him away somehow? Shooting him—”

“Hell if I know. Maybe it’ll scare him off, maybe it’ll make him take a bite out of us!” Rick growled at the contents of his second screen. “Whatever you do, do it now, because if he keeps escalating like this, none of us are gonna like the outcome!”

“Open the shields,” Mark suddenly said. “Maybe we’ll be able to figure something out if we have a better visual.”

“Can’t hurt any more than what he’s already doing,” Rick said, jabbing buttons. The window was slowly revealed, just in time for a flash of blue light to dart by.

“His spines are charged,” Colonel Foster said with audible dread.

Rick banged his forehead against the desk. Mark gripped for something to hold onto as Castle Bravo shuddered mightily.

Godzilla reappeared, though not for long. His tail lashed as he kept swimming, circling the base and swinging out away from it before moving in closer, jarring the structure.

“Dad?”

Mark spun around at the sound of Maddie’s voice. She stood just behind him, even paler than before in the eerie emergency lights. His own jacket hung off her shoulders—he hadn’t realized he’d left it in her room—dwarfing her. The hospital gown, thankfully not one of those that tied only at the neck, made her look sickly. 

“Sweetheart, what are you doing here?” Mark asked, stepping up to her but hesitating to touch. Her bruises remained vivid in his mind’s eye. “You should be—”

They both nearly fell over as the floor jerked, as if suffering from an earthquake.

“I know,” Maddie said. “But the nurses were freaking out and I just—I didn’t want to be alone. What’s going on?”

“Godzilla’s pissed!” Rick called over his shoulder.

“He listened to us before,” Colonel Foster started. “And he clearly understood what we said. Could we talk to him?”

“And say what?” Mark asked, turning back to her. “Ask him to stop? As long as we can’t understand him, what can we do?”

The pulsing rumble that had been filling the room all the while abruptly stopped. The base went still and quiet. Mark held his breath and stared down at the sonar display.

Godzilla had stopped circling them.

He heard Rick inhale sharply. Following his gaze, Mark understood why.

Godzilla was right outside the window, his fiercely blue eyes staring right into the room. Behind him, his spines remained bright. But the part that stopped Mark’s heart was his daughter, standing right smack at the middle of the window.

He hadn’t even noticed her walk away, but there she was, one hand out and pressed to the glass. The white of the bandages rendered her thin arm bonelike. In front of her, Godzilla’s tail lazily swayed behind him. There was nothing aggressive about his body language now.

Maddie looked over her shoulder at Mark, the blue light of his still-lit spines highlighting one side of her face and casting the other into shadows. He couldn’t tell what her expression looked like.

A deep, throaty rumble broke the silence. Outside, Godzilla’s head turned slightly and dipped forward, focusing his eye on Maddie. She turned back to face him.

It felt like Mark’s heart was lodged in his throat. Why was this happening? How had it happened at all? _Ignorance is bliss_ and all that, and he cursed those kidnappers for being the catalyst to this moment.

“Mark?” Rick said quietly, grimly.

“Yeah?”

“I think it’d be a bad idea to take Maddie away.”

“Yeah.” Mark swallowed heavily. Outside, Godzilla bared his teeth in what might've been a grin, or maybe a threat. Maddie was centered in the image of his sharp teeth. “I think you might be right.”

**Author's Note:**

> Definitely different, but I have to admit, I enjoyed writing it. And that's what fic's all about, right? 
> 
> love y'all! • [my tumblr](https://star-going-supernova.tumblr.com) •


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